CHRONOLOGY OF NUCLEAR SMUGGLING INCIDENTS

(The following Chronology of Nuclear Smuggling Incidents was an
appendix to the March 20 testimony by Director of Central Intelligence
John Deutch before the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee on
global proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and illicit
trafficking of nuclear materials.)

Date of Event

---- 1996 ----

17 March -- Tanzanian police arrested one individual last week and
seized a container of radioactive cesium.

9 March -- Romanian police announced on 8 March that they are holding
two individuals for attempting to sell stolen radioactive material,
according to press reports. A police spokesman announced that the two
had in their possession 82 kg of radioactive material including low
enriched uranium. Officials also found reportedly secret documents
stolen from the Research and Design Center for Radioactive Metals.

4 March -- UPDATE (12 February): According to press reports,
Lithuanian officials have determined that the 100 kg of radioactive
matenal seized last month from an armed gang is uranium-238. This
material was stolen from a company responsible for maintenance at the
nearby Ignalina nuclear power plant.

23 February -- According to press reports, the Belarus Committee for
State Security (KGB) seized five kilograms of cesium-133. The
radioactive metal reportedly was sealed in glass containers. Belarus
authorities are investigating the incident, according to press.

12 February -- Lithuanian authorities announced that they had arrested
seven people and seized nearly 100 kg of radioactive material,
according to press reports. The material, believed to be uranium, will
undergo further tests to ascertain its makeup and origin. It was
emitting 14,000 microroentgens per hour. Some reports stated that the
material was a component of a nuclear fuel assembly which has been
missing from the nearby Ignalina nuclear power plant for several
years. The Ignalina plant manager claims that the seized material is
not nuclear fuel or equipment used at his facility.

1 February -- Swiss federal prosecutors announced on 1 February the
arrest of a Swiss citizen of Turkish descent for attempting to sell a
sample of "slightly-enriched" uranium in Switzerland, according to
press. Swiss authorities stated that the individual claimed the sample
was part of a larger cache still in Turkey. Turkish police using
information from their Swiss counterparts, then arrested eight people
and seized 1.128 kg of similar material. Press reports indicate that
the uranium was similar to that used in nuclear power-plant fuel rods.
Swiss authorities reportedly are conducting tests to determine the
uranium's country of origin.

25 January -- According to press reports, German authorities have
charged a merchant and his lawyer with crimes stemming from their
attempt to sell radioactive cesium to another merchant who was a
police informant. The cesium reportedly was transported to Germany
from Zaire on board a commercial airliner.

21 January -- UPDATE (7 November 95): The German parliamentary
commission investigating the 1994 plutonium smuggling incident,
reportedly has uncovered German government documents indicating that
the three smugglers offered to supply 11 kilograms of Russian-origin,
weapons-grade plutonium, which they claimed was enough to build three
nuclear weapons, according to press reports.

18 January -- According to press reports, German authorities have
charged a merchant and his lawyer with crimes stemming from their
attempt to sell radioactive cesium-137 smuggled from Zaire to another
merchant who was a police informant. The cesium reportedly was
transported to Germany from Zaire on board a commercial airliner.

17 January -- A Palestinian in Dubai, UAE has offered to sell three
kilograms of reportedly Russian-origin red mercury to a
Lebanese-American businessman, according to US diplomatic reporting.

---- 1995 ----

28 December -- According to press reports, the Russian Federal
Security Service (FSB) arrested nine members of a criminal
organization in Novosibirsk and seized a quantity of radioactive
material. The material was identified in press reports as "enriched"
uranium-235. The material had been transported to Novosibirsk by
middlemen, possibly from Kazakstan. The ultimate destination may have
been South Korea, according to press reports.

2 December -- UPDATE (9 Nov 95): According to Italian press reports,
Italian prosecutors have arrested an individual, Roger D' Onofrio,
with reported links to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and
the Italian-American mafia as part of their investigation of smuggling
radioactive materials, money-laundering and arms trafficking.
D'Onofrio, 72, reportedly has dual Italian and U.S. citizenship and
retired from the CIA only two years ago. The ring he is alleged to
have been part of is said to have been active from the early 1990s up
to this year. Italian investigators reportedly suspect that D'Onofrio
is the mastermind behind an international ring which laundered dirty
money and smuggled gold, weapons and radioactive material. His name
also appears in another investigation into an arms smuggling operation
between Italy and the Middle East, according to press reports.
D'Onofrio was taken into preventive custody on charges of money
laundering and acting as a broker in illegal currency dealing.
According to press, the prosecutors had so far ascertained money
laundering for over 2.5 billion dollars on behalf of secret service
and organized crime sources in complicity with diplomats, the ruling
families in Kuwait, Morocco and Zambia, bankers, prelates and others.

1 December -- UPDATE (23 November): According to US diplomats in
Moscow, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) delivered an
official statement to US officials regarding the radioactive material
discovered in Izmailov park on 23 November. The container, which held
cesium-137, posed no public health threat. Radiation levels of the
cesium were between 10 to more than 50 millicurrie. The radioactive
material may have been used as an instrument calibration source used
in flaw detection equipment.

30 November -- A former Greenpeace president revealed that the
organization had been offered a nuclear warhead by a disgruntled
former Soviet officer keen to highlight lax security, according to
press accounts. The former Greenpeace official stated in a recently
published book that a Soviet officer with access to nuclear weapons
offered Greenpeace an 800 kg nuclear Scud warhead for public display
in Berlin. The offer was made shortly before 7 September 1991.

29 November -- Russian security officials have recovered four
containers with radioactive cesium, stolen from an industrial plant in
the Urals and arrested the thieves, according to press reports.
Federal Security Service (FSB) officers found the 90-kilogram
(198-pound) containers in a shaft of an old mine, the ITAR-Tass news
agency reported. One of the alleged thieves, the Bakal mining plant's
electrical engineer, had initially kept them at his vegetable garden
but moved them to a safer place after the theft had been discovered,
claimed security officials. Two officials of a local penitentiary were
his accomplices, they further alleged. Each container held a capsule
with cesium 137, a radioactive isotope used in geological research, as
well as in medicine. The containers were similar to the one allegedly
planted by Chechen rebels in a Moscow park.

23 November -- Acting on a tip from Chechen separatist leader Basayev,
Russian television reporters discovered a 32 kg container --
reportedly holding cesium-137 -- in a Moscow park. The container was
reportedly removed and turned over to the Russian Federal Security
Service (FSB). FSB officials stated that an official investigation was
underway and that no further comments would be made until the inquiry
was completed, according to press reports. Television reports quote a
highly-placed FSB officer as stating unofficially that the object was
a piece of a hospital x-ray machine. Basayev claimed earlier this
month that several containers of radioactive material attached to
explosive devices had been planted in Russia. In a television
interview aired on 15 October, Russian Interior Minister Kulikov
stated that Chechen separatist leader Basayev might have radioactive
waste or radioisotopes taken from the Budyonnovsk hospital seized by
Chechen rebels last spring.

23 November -- UPDATE (7 Nov 95): A German court sentenced Adolph
Jaekle, a German businessman, to 5 1/2 years in prison for smuggling
weapons grade plutonium into the country, according to press reports.
Investigators made the first in a series of contraband plutonium
seizures in Germany when they raided Jaekle's home, in the southern
town of Tengen in May, 1994, and found a lead cylinder containing 6.15
grams of plutonium 239. Jaekle had pleaded not guilty to the plutonium
charge, arguing that he did not know what the substance was.

11 November -- Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officials
arrested two Lithuanian citizens in Smolensk for smuggling 10 kgs of
"uranium-238" into Russia, according to Russian television reports.
Three Russians also were arrested for attempting to sell the uranium.
Both the Lithuanians and the Russians claimed that poverty had induced
them to attempt to traffic in smuggled nuclear materials. According to
press accounts, Russian authorities stressed that the material was not
weapons grade and had no commercial or industrial uses.

9 November -- Italian prosecutors reportedly have asked Spanish
authorities for permission to question the Archbishop of Barcelona
about his role in an international criminal syndicate involved in
smuggling radioactive materials, according to Italian press accounts.
Accusations against the Archbishop arose after Italian officials
tapped a telephone conversation in which the Archbishop was named as
playing a leading role in the criminal enterprise. Both the Archbishop
and the Vatican have vehemently denied the accusations. The Spanish
Justice ministry has characterized the Italian request as "not very
well thought out." The Italian investigation grew out of an earlier
probe into money laundering operations which reportedly uncovered
information that a criminal enterprise involving a self-professed
Italian intelligence official, was attempting to sell 7.5 kg osmium
for $63,000 per gram, according to Italian press accounts.

7 November -- During a search of a car at the Polish-Czech border,
Polish Border Guards discovered 11 cigarette pack-size containers
filled with strontium-90, according to press accounts. This incident
is the first case in 1995 involving smuggling radioactive material
through Poland.

7 November -- UPDATE (10 Aug 94): Adolf Jaekle, accused of smuggling
Russian-origin plutonium following a May 1994 raid on his home, denied
any involvement in nuclear smuggling, according to press reports.
Jaekle insisted that the container of plutonium was planted at his
home and that the container was not the same one he took from a Swiss
associate for metal reprocessing.

7 November -- Iranian press reports indicate the Iranian law
enforcement authorities have arrested five Iranians and seized nine
packets of uranium in Tehran and two other cities. No details were
released regarding amount of material or whether it was enriched or
not.

25 October -- The cleaning staff at Moscow's Sheremetyevo 2 airport
found a small lead container packed with radioactive substances in the
men's restroom, according to press reports. Experts reportedly are
attempting to determine the exact composition of the three sources of
ionizing radiation found in the container. The speculation, in the
Russian press, was that a nuclear smuggler lost his nerve and
abandoned the material during an aborted smuggling attempt.

19 October -- UPDATE (10 Aug 94): According to a 19 October article in
"Der Stern," nuclear weapons smugglers involved in smuggling
Russian-origin plutonium into Germany in August 1994 have stored eight
to ten kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium in Berlin. The article
also implicates highly placed Russians in the smuggling activity.

14 October -- Russian Mafia figures reportedly were behind the 1993
theft of radioactive beryllium from a Russian nuclear laboratory and
the failed attempt to sell the material in the West, according to
press reports. The theft, which was widely reported in 1993, was
seized by police in Lithuania and remains today in the bank vault
where it was first discovered. According to press, the smugglers were
preparing to sell the beryllium to an Austrian middleman who in turn
had a mystery buyer who reportedly was willing to pay as much as $24
million for the material. The buyer, although never identified, was
said to be Korean. Beryllium, which is used in missile guidance
systems, is a highly efficient neutron reflector, according to public
statements by nuclear scientists.

10 October -- Russian authorities claim that there have been no
identified incidents in which weapons-grade radioactive material has
been smuggled out of Russia, according to press reports. In a press
conference, Russian General Terekhov of the Interior Ministry, stated
that of the 16 cases involving theft of radioactive materials, none
could have been used to make nuclear weapons. He also ruled out any
involvement by Russian organized criminal organizations in the thefts.
The general claimed that the thefts were spontaneous actions by
individuals working at nuclear facilities. The Russian officials
concluded the press conference by stating that there is no black
market in nuclear materials.

1 September -- According to press reports, Bulgarian police had broken
an international nuclear smuggling ring composed of Russians and
Ukrainians. Police spokesmen, declining to disclose details only said
that the materials seized were of strategic value and included rare
metals. The arrests were the culmination of a year-long undercover
operation. Senior police officials commented that they were still
investigating the final destination of the materials, some of which
were radioactive.

15 June -- Press reports indicate that so far in 1995 Romanian
authorities have seized 24 kgs of uranium powder and tablets, and in
1994 they arrested 24 people for involvement in nuclear smuggling and
seized 10.35 kgs of uranium powder and tablets. From 1989 to 1993, the
Romanians reportedly broke up five gangs, arrested 50 people, and
seized 230 kgs of nuclear material.

13 April -- Slovak police culminated a long investigation with the
discovery of 18.39 kg of nuclear material, 17.5 kg of which apparently
is U-238, in a car stopped near Poprad in eastern Slovakia.
Altogether, three Hungarians, four Slovaks, and two Ukrainians were
arrested. This gang was connected to three other nuclear material
smuggling incidents.

5 April -- Four brass containers weighing 2 kilos each containing
radioactive americium-241 and cesium-137 were stolen from a storeroom
of isotopes in Wroclaw, Poland.

4 April -- Press reports that 6 kg of U-235, U-238, radium and
palladium were found in a Kiev apartment. Occupants were ex-army, a
lieutenant colonel and a warrant officer, and material reportedly came
from Russia.

2 April -- Documents recovered by Japanese police in the investigation
of Aum Shinrikyo involvement in the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack
reportedly indicated that the terrorists were collecting information
on uranium enrichment and laser beam technologies. A spokesman for
Russia's prestigious nuclear physics laboratory, Kurchatov Institute,
acknowledged that at least one Aum Shinrikyo follower was working at
the institute.

14 March -- Polish police in Bielska-Biala province arrested a man for
possession of uranium.

8 March -- Italian police arrested one Nicola Todesco for murder in a
plutonium smuggling case gone awry when the murder victim did not have
the money to pay for a quantity of plutonium smuggled out of Bulgaria.
Todesco claimed be threw 5g of plutonium into the Adige river, but no
trace of it was found after an extensive search. (Comment: Although an
official Italian spokesman believed the plutonium was "enriched for
military use," it had not been analyzed and may be another scam
involving `plutonium screws' from smoke detectors.

25 January -- According to Talinn news broadcasts, Lithuanian border
police, using U.S.-supplied stationary radiation detectors, seized two
tons of radioactive wolfram hidden in a secret compartment in a truck
trailer. (The "wolfram" is tungsten, which has a short half-life, and
probably was "infected" by a radioactive contaminant.) The incident
occurred at the Lithuanian-Belarus border, and the truck's owner and
two other men were arrested. A similar incident occurred a week
earlier at another border post but no details are available.

---- 1994 ----

14 December -- Czech police seized 2.72 kg of material -- later
identified as 87.7 percent enriched U-235 -- in Prague; this is the
largest recorded seizure of such material. Police arrested a Czech
nuclear physicist and two citizens of the Former Soviet Union. The
uranium apparently came from the FSU and was to be smuggled to Western
Europe.

10 December -- Press reporting indicates Hungarian border guards
seized 1.7 kg of uranium and arrested four Slovak citizens. The
material (depleted uranium and reactor fuel grade) reportedly was
concealed in a fruit jar and was to be smuggled into Austria.

6 December -- In a long article in "Pravda", it was reported that
three staffers of the Institute of Nuclear Physics were convicted of
stealing 4.5 kg of uranium.

10 November -- Press reporting indicates Hungarian police discovered
26 kg of radioactive material in the trunk of a car. Three suspects
were subsequently arrested.

November -- Press reporting indicates German police seized l milligram
of cesium-137 in early November and arrested two suspects.

17 October -- Press reporting indicates Russian authorities seized 27
kg of U-238, an unknown quantity of U-235 and detained 12 members of a
criminal gang.

October -- Press reporting indicates that in mid-October, four Indian
villagers were arrested attempting to sell 2.5 kg of yellowcake, i.e.
uranium extracted from ore.

13 October -- Press reporting indicates Bulgarian officials seized
four lead capsules suspected of containing radioactive material. The
capsules were found on a bus en route to Turkey and police detained
the two bus drivers.

10 October -- Press reporting indicates Romanian authorities arrested
seven people and seized 7 kg of uranium and an unidentified quantity
of strontium or cesium.

01 October -- Press reporting indicates Romanian police arrested four
people trying to sell over 4 kg of U-235 and U-238.

October -- Press reporting dated 26 October indicates Russian
authorities arrested three men trying to pass 67 kg of U-238 to
unidentified individuals in the city of Pskov.

28 September -- Press reporting indicates that a container with
radioactive substances was found on a street in Tallinn.

28 September -- Romanian authorities arrested several individuals who
were attempting to sell 4.55 kg of uranium tetrachloride (61.9 percent
uranium) for $25 thousand per kg, according to press reports.

28 September -- Press reporting indicates Slovak officials arrested
four Slovaks trying to smuggle almost 1 kg of U-235 (judged not to be
weapons-grade) into Hungary.

26 September -- Press reporting indicates the discovery of a glass
flask containing unspecified "weak radioactive material" at the
Wetzlar railroad station in Germany.

September -- A Pole tried to sell 1 kg of U-235/238 in Germany. A
German court subsequently sentenced him to two and a half years in
prison for trading in radioactive uranium.

11 September -- Press reports indicate German police arrested a
Zairian national attempting to smuggle 850 g of uraninite into
Germany.

07 September -- Press reports indicate Russian police arrested three
people in Glazov trying to sell 100 kg of U-238.

29 August -- Press reports indicate Hungarian police arrested two men
and seized 4.4 kg of material believed to be fuelrods from a reactor
in Russia.

20 August -- Press reports Russian authorities arrested two men
attempting to steal 9.5 kg of uranium 238 from the Arzamas-16 nuclear
weapons research facility.

18 August -- Press reports indicate Estonian police arrested a man and
seized 3 kg of U-238 he had buried under his garage.

According to press reporting, about 100 uranium-contaminated drums
were stolen from South Africa's Atomic Energy Corporation plant in
Pelindaba, Transvaal.

12 August -- Press reports indicate that St. Petersburg police
arrested three men trying to sell 60 kg of unidentified nuclear
material.

12 August -- Press reports indicate German police in Bremen arrested a
German who claimed to have 2 g of plutonium; the sample contained only
minute amounts of legally obtainable plutonium.

10 August -- Press report indicates that over 500 g of nuclear
material were seized at Munich airport. The trial began on 10 May 1995
of two men for possession of 363 g (12.8 ounces) of weapons-grade
plutonium-239.

August -- Unconfirmed press report says 3 kg of enriched uranium were
seized in August in southwestern Romania.

June -- According to 6 June press reporting, Russian security official
announces the arrest of three Russians in St. Petersburg who allegedly
tried to sell 3.5 kg of HEU.

June -- According to an 8 July press report, Russian authorities
arrested three officers from the Northern Fleet accused of having
stolen 4.5 kg of U-238 from their base in Nov 93.

June -- According to a 2 November press report, police in Pitesti,
Romania, arrested three Romanians trying to sell 3 kg of uranium
tablets.

May -- According to 30 July press reporting, 56 g of material,
including 6 g of plutonium 239, were seized and Adolf Jaekle, a German
citizen, was arrested in Germany in May.

---- 1993 ----

November 1993 -- In a case stemming from an incident in November 1993
in which a Russian naval officer stole 4 kg of 20 percent enriched
U-235 nuclear fuel rods from a poorly guarded area at Severomorsk, a
Russian court found the officer guilty but gave him a suspended
sentence because he admitted the act. Two accomplices were sentenced
to three years at a labor camp.